Many times when a user requires a circuit, the user frequently knows little more than the requirements that the circuit must satisfy. To obtain the desired circuit, the user may provide a list of the requirements to a business that is knowledgeable about those types of circuits, how to design them, and where to obtain the components to fabricate them. The business may then construct and supply the user with the circuit. The business may have a significant price mark up for these services.
To avoid having to pay the marked up prices, the user may attempt to become educated on circuit design, obtain parts catalogs from circuit component suppliers, and fabricate the circuit. However, the effort and cost required to gain the requisite education and knowledge may not be worthwhile. To reduce the effort required to perform some of these tasks, the user may obtain and install specialized off line tools, such as the Switchers Made Simple software product available from National Semiconductor Corporation. While such tools may assist in the circuit design and component selection tasks, the user must still go through the manual process of placing orders for the components. Further, given the rapidity with which circuit component manufacturers change their product lines, the component information used by the specialized off line software will quickly become outdated unless frequently updated. The inconvenience of having to obtain, install, and keep such specialized software updated does not make this the solution ideal.
Electrical simulators typically allow a user to conduct an electrical simulation of a pre-existing electrical schematic (or circuit). The user can observe the performance of the circuit under simulated operating conditions. The user can change simulation related parameters but must use a pre-defined reference circuit. Furthermore, the user cannot freely change the connectivity of the circuit or add or remove components in a free form manner.